FOCUS ON SAFE DISPOSAL, REUSE OF EV BATTERIES

WHILE there is a major push for popularising electric vehicles across India and their numbers are galloping ahead, serious attention needs to be paid to the disposal and reuse of EV batteries—an area that remains largely ignored.

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In a report published last month, Niti Aayog called the industry a $200-billion opportunity and urged the Centre to formulate a national EV policy with clear-cut targets, timelines and a regulatory framework to fast-track India’s transition to zero-emission vehicles. Although the think tank mentioned the need for a circular economy for end-of-life EV batteries, it did not explicitly focus on disposal. The report urged the Union government to develop an infrastructure to speed up India’s transition to clean mobility by overcoming the challenges of inadequate charging stations and support infrastructure for long-distance EV p